The board of Iowa’s Sioux Gateway Airport has finally lightened up and embraced its unforgiving identifier – SUX.

After years of trying to get a new three-letter code from the FAA and showing little sense of humor or strategic thinking toward the matter, the airport is making a go at the classic PR strategy of trying to turn a negative into a positive with a new marketing slogan “Fly SUX.”

As board member and concert promoter Dave Bernstein told the Sioux City Journal, “Let’s make the best of it. …As long as they’re talking about you, go with it.”

Mayor Craig Berenstein, who once called the SUX moniker an “embarrassment,” now proudly owns a $20 “Fly SUX” t-shirt.
Things are looking up for the airport in other ways, too. Frontier Airlines has started routes from SUX and Northwest Airlines expanded its service from SUX to Denver.